The present invention relates to digital images of people in a public venue so that the images corresponding to a given person can be retrieved.
When patrons visit a large and varied entertainment setting, such as the theme parks Disney World or Six Flags Over Texas, they often wish to collect a permanent memento of their attendance. Often, this memento comprises photographs taken by the patron or those traveling with the patron. One difficulty with obtaining this type of photographic image is that suitable camera angles may be difficult or impossible for the patron to achieve. For instance, while on a roller coaster ride, picture taking is generally disallowed, requiring pictures to be taken from a distance. In addition, the patron may have difficulties obtaining pictures of himself, or the patron may not either have or remember or have the opportunity to use his picture taking equipment.
In order to compensate for these difficulties, provide patrons with suitable mementos, and to obtain additional sources of revenue, entertainment venues may take photographs for sale to the patron. These pictures may be staged pictures, as in xe2x80x9cOld Timexe2x80x9d photographs where the patron dresses in costume or places their head in a board cutout such that the patrons head is located just above the image of the body of a person in another context. Alternatively, a professional photographer may take a picture of the patron positioned next to an actor clothed in a costume of a well-known cartoon character. These staged pictures, however, present only a limited number of opportunities in which to obtain images of patrons, and furthermore these methods are generally unsuitable for the tens or hundreds of thousands of patrons who might visit a theme park in a single day.
In order to compensate for some of these difficulties, at some theme parks cameras are placed strategically within rides so as to capture each patron at a particular moment in the ride""s course. For example, at Disneyland in California, a camera is located so as to photograph each load of riders on a water ride at the moment of maximum excitement. The photographs are arranged to be displayed to each participant as they exit the ride, in order to entice them to purchase the photographs as a keepsakes.
This method of taking pictures of patrons on rides has proven popular with patrons, but has a number of practical limitations that limit its usefulness and applicability. For example, after standing in line to participate in the ride, the patron must stand in another line to obtain their picture. Only one or a small number of images may be purchased by the patron at each ride. Importantly, the patron must remember a number corresponding to their picture in order to obtain their picture from among the multitude taken at the theme park each day. Thus, patrons must generally purchase their picture directly after their ride in order to be able to remember their number. This cumbersome and time-consuming process limits the number of images that each customer might obtain during the day. These limitations affect both the satisfaction of the patron and the revenues for the theme park.
It is to these problems and other problems that the present invention is directed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a means of facial recognition that provides fewer false positives and fewer false negatives. In order to accomplish this goal, information in addition to that normally analyzed in facial recognition is taken into account. Such additional information can include aspects of the person""s hair and coloration, as well as jewelry and other worn objects, as well as clothing. Furthermore, information on people who tend to be in the same image with other specific people is collected, analyzed and stored. Because most of the images captured at an event are taken over a short period of time, the people in the images will tend to have the same additional information over the course of the event. Furthermore, people associated with other people (e.g. couples and family, school groups) will tend to be in the same images with one another, and the occurrence of one person will make it more like that another person of the same group is also in the image. Together, these analysis methods greatly increase the accuracy of facial recognition.
The present invention also relates to the use of facial recognition in sorting and collecting images from an electronically-stored photographic ensemble, enabling the easy retrieval of images that related to a particular person or set of people.